Mr. Speaker, tomorrow, February 13, will be the end of an era. Canada's hockey shrine on Carleton Street, the Maple Leaf Gardens, will host its last hockey game for all to see on Hockey Night in Canada .
Nothing is as intrinsically Canadian as hockey. Nothing captures the souls of Canadians like hockey, and Maple Leaf Gardens has been the stage for many defining moments in our history.
There was nothing quite like the feeling of attending a game at the Gardens. It is like stepping back in time: the ghosts of battles won and lost, the memorabilia of the glory days of the original six, and the haunting voices of Foster Hewitt and Danny Gallivan. That was hockey. Con Smythe, Foster Hewitt, Frank Mahovlich, Darryl Sittler, Lanny MacDonald, Punch Imlach, Wendel Clark and oh, yes, Harold Ballard, are just a few of the names that will live on in the legacy of the Gardens and the Canadian dream.
For generations of Canadians the home of hockey will always be the house that Smythe built.